Who Are You?
by Kaze-chan
Summary: Short (really) fic about how two little-used, much-loved characters meet - as pre-teens. Starring Mitsukake and Shoka. (LOOK! NO ANGST! It's a MIRACLE!)


  
DISCLAIMER: No own. What? You shouldn't be surprised by now! ~_~   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ever wonder what Kaze-chan writes when it's "just for fun," not some great project she's had planned for forever? No, it's not parody. It's **cuteness!**   
I don't really know where this came from. My mind just went POP! one day and I ended up with this idea. It seemed interesting/amusing/_easy-to-write_, so I decided to give it a whirl.   
This fic stars two highly admired, widely loved, yet little-used characters. I decided to give em a break *_~ (OK, stop patting yourself on the back, Kazeko.) I had a lot of fun trying to decide what these two would be like as pre-teens, since you never really see them out of their moods. Needless to say, they're not exactly the same as when they're adults, but I hope it's seems kind of natural that they'd go from how I picture them to what they turn out like in the series. Do they?   
**_AND THERE'S NO ANGST ANYWHERE!!!!!_** I've finally done it!   
  


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The boy sat on the bank of the river, splashing his feet happily in the surging froth, shredding a leaf in his agile fingers. He had run away from chores, clapping his hands over his ears until he was out of hearing range of his family's small house so he could later truthfully say that he hadn't heard his mother calling him. He didn't like lying, but a day like this one, with the warm sun, new green leaves, and birds and butterflies dancing on the breeze was just one he couldn't miss.   
He had run down to the river, gathering various herbs and other plants along the way to take back to his mother and older sister. He even included some flowers; he didn't like them much because although they _were_ very pretty, most of them didn't have any other use. And now he sat, dangling his feet in the still-icy water, the sun warming his face as he inspected most of the other plants for insects.   
Twigs snapped and dead leaves from the previous autumn crunched on the other side of the river. His head snapped up and he dropped his plant, then dove to catch it and almost fell in the river. The plant was whisked away by the current, vanishing around the next bend as the cause of the noise appeared across from him.   
A girl stood there, maybe a year or so his junior, wearing a simply styled but obviously expensive dress of deep blue. Her dark blonde hair was done up in twisted loops, secured by pale pink ribbons and a couple of white flowers. She certainly _appeared_ innocent enough, but the look she gave him made him lean more toward the harpy option than the angel one.   
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you a spy for my father?" She carefully stepped off her side of the bank onto the first of the row of low rocks that formed a sort of natural bride across the river. "Well? Aren't you going to answer me?"   
"Why should I? You're being rude! I'm just sitting here, there's not a law against that," he retorted. "And I don't even know your father, so why should I be his spy?"   
"That's just the sort of thing a spy would say!" She picked up her skirts enough to step carefully from one stone to the next, her slippers only getting the tiniest bit wet.   
"But I'm _not_ a spy!"   
"Prove it!"   
They both glared at each other, he standing on his bank and she halfway across the river on a particularly large stone. Her hands were planted on her hips and his arms were crossed over his chest. "All right, I'll tell you if you tell me."   
"What are you talking about?"   
"I'll tell you who I am and why I'm here if you tell me the same things. Otherwise I'm not saying anything to you." The boy sat down again and picked up a stem of parsley, separating the leaves and chasing away a ladybug.   
The girl considered for a minute, then finally nodded and crossed the rest of the way to the boy's side. Up close he could see that she was very tall for a girl her age, almost as tall as he was, which was very hard because he was tall to begin with and had started a new growth spurt. She plopped down on the ground next to him, heedless of her dress, picking a couple stems of grass and fiddling with them between her fingers. "I'm Shoka. My father's the landlord in Souen." She named the village next to Choko, the boy's town. "He was going to have some really boring people over today, so I escaped so I wouldn't have to be the perfect little girl again." She looked at him hard. "Okay, your turn."   
"My name's Myojuan, but everyone calls me Mitsukake, although I don't know why. I didn't want to help with the cleaning." He made an expressive face that made Shoka giggle. "So I ran away. And I'm _not_ a spy for your father."   
"I know that. Daddy wouldn't pick a spy that stood out so easily, and you're _much_ too tall to not be noticed." He grinned at the thought. He liked being tall. "What's all that?" She pointed at the plants that were stacked in a pile between them.   
"These? I picked 'em. Maybe if my mother and sister see these, they won't be so angry I ran away. It's worked before."   
"What do they do?" She picked up a sprig of an herb he didn't know the name for, but made his mother's cooking much tastier.   
"A lot of different things. Some make food better, some are just pretty." Mitsukake made the "yuck" face again.   
Shoka, to say the least, was taken aback. She stopped right in the middle of removing her slippers, one already resting next to her on the bank. "Nani? You don't like pretty things?!"   
"They're _okay_, but most of 'em don't _do_ anything. I like the ones that do things. Like this one." He dug half way down his pile and pulled out a stem with several leaves sprouting off it. He'd yanked that one out with its roots intact, and small clumps of dirt fell from between his fingers. Shoka tried to brush them away from her dress with little success. "If you grind the leaves and then boil the pieces, you get a liquid that makes cuts and bruises hurt less, among other things."   
"Wow! That's pretty neat. How do you know that?" Her other slipper joined its mate.   
He straightened up proudly, grinning smugly. "I'm going to be a doctor when I'm older. I'm going to go all over Konan and heal everyone who's sick, no matter if they can pay or not. Maybe even the emperor'll need my help one day."   
Shoka sighed and lay back on the bank, hair spilling out underneath her, her now-bare toes splashing gently in the river as Mitsukake's had been earlier. She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed at the blue sky. "That sounds grand. I wish I could have dreams like that."   
"Everyone has dreams. You can't just _not_ have them." Mitsukake picked up a small pebble and skipped it over the miniature rapids.   
"Well, no, but I never get to talk about them or even think about them much. Daddy has my entire future planned out for me, and I know there's no getting out of it."   
A spiky head of black hair pushed itself into her field of vision. "Why not? What's he want you to do?"   
She shrugged slightly, shoulders hampered by her position. "The same thing that happens to almost every other landlord's daughter. Get married to someone I probably don't even like because Daddy wants his money or land or connections in business and court."   
"That's horrible."   
"I know."   
"So don't put up with it."   
"I have to."   
"Why? You're stubborn. You'll get your way if you really want to."   
She turned her head to glare at him. "I'll hit you if you say that again."   
He just grinned. "See? Stubborn."   
She sighed in defeat. "All right, all right, I don't want to argue about this."   
"Only because you know you're losing."   
"Ne!" She sat up quickly and whacked him in the shoulder.   
"Itai! See? Stubborn." He pulled one of the leaves from the plant he'd been showing her before and rubbed it carefully over his shoulder, then sighed happily in relief. "Much better."   
Shoka shook out her stinging hand. "Can I try that thing?"   
Mitsukake picked a leaf off the stem and handed it carefully to her. "Watch out. It's not as strong as the liquid, but it can still make your fingertips go numb."   
She nodded and accepted it carefully by its very short stem, brushing it slightly over her stinging fingers. "Ne! It worked!"   
"Of course it did, why wouldn't it?"   
"MITSUKAKE!"   
He winced at the voice that carried easily over the field from the direction of Choko. "That's my sister."   
Shoka grimaced. "Loud, isn't she?"   
"Among other things," he replied dryly. He stood up and brushed off his pants and tunic, then reached down and clasped the bundle of plants in his hand. "I better get back, if I stay out after they call me they get even angrier."   
"That makes sense." Shoka also stood up, brushing her dripping feet on the grass and picking up her slippers.   
"Maybe I'll see you later. Bye." Mitsukake waved with his bundle of plants and began trudging back towards Choko.   
"Mits kah kay."   
He turned back. "Nani?"   
"Nothing… just trying out your name. It's a mouthful."   
He grimaced. "I know, but I can't get rid of it. No one'll tell me where I got it either."   
She grinned. "Well then, I think I'll call you Myojuan. Maybe even Juan."   
His face slowly lit up. "Hounto ni?"   
She giggled and nodded. "Since you seem to like it so much, yeah."   
"_MITSUKAKE!_ I'M THROUGH WAITING!"   
He winced again. "I definitely better go." He turned and began walking again, but didn't get more than three steps before he looked back. "Want to come with me?"   
She tilted her head at him questioningly. "What?"   
"Want to come to my house? You can meet my wailing sister." He grinned. "She's actually not that bad. And you can get away from that overly-large house of yours for awhile."   
She stared at him for a few seconds, then slowly grinned. "Sure!" She jammed her feet in her slippers and ran to catch up with him. Then the two of them raced back to Mitsukake's house.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Aren't they just so cuuuuuuuuuuute? ~grins~ He got nicknamed Mini Mits after this. I'm sorry Mits, don't exoricise me!   
And you _know_ you wanna leave a review and tell me how my first non-angst thing turned out? Right? _Right?_ Ja ne! 


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